The Freedom Convoy protests which have spanned over a fortnight in Canada found support from anti-vaxxers, Covid-19 regulation and vaccine mandate detractors in the US. Now, the protests have spiralled out of Canada and spilled onto New Zealand as many protesters claim that Covid-19 regulations and vaccine mandates are a thing of the past even as the world slowly recovers from the Omicron rampage. Anti-Covid regulations’ protests are nothing new in Europe but the Freedom Convoy protests have given a new lease of life to protests outside Canada.
France
French demonstrators on Sunday blocked the traffic on Saturday in capital Paris as they demanded removal of the vaccine pass requirement. The vaccine pass was imposed by the French government to enter restaurants, cafes and many other public venues as part of president Emmanuel Macron’s campaign to increase vaccination rates.
“This Covid pass is just the latest in a series of anti-freedom measures in our country — we have freedom of movement in Europe, yet we’re being stopped by the police, we don’t have the right to be here and carry a flag,” a protester was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
French protesters are headed to Brussels where there is a major demonstration expected. The report by AFP outlined that more than 400 vehicles were seen in and around Paris all of whose destination was the Belgian capital.
Belgium
Despite the aforementioned major demonstration being banned by Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo, several campers, minivans and trucks were seen by AFP correspondents ready to enter Belgium. De Croo even asked protesters to raise complaints to their own governments. “I say to those who come from abroad: look at the rules in Belgium. We never had rules that were too hard and we don’t have so many anymore. So complain at home,” De Croo was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. A similar group of protesters from the Hague have also extended their support and said that they would convene in Brussels to protest against ‘absolute control’.
New Zealand, lauded by experts for its handling of the pandemic and also among nations to have the strictest of Covid-19 measures, was also among nations which saw Freedom Convoy-like protests. New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said that the protests were ‘imported’ referring to Donald Trump posters and Canadian flags at the protest site. “It feels like an imported protest to me. I’ve seen Trump flags on the forecourt, I’ve seen Canadian flags on the forecourt,” Ardern was quoted as saying by state-run TVNZ.
The protest site which is in front of New Zealand’s parliament saw thousands of protesters with their children demanding scaling down and even removal of the strict Covid-19 rules in New Zealand.
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